Officials investigating 'suspicious death' in Crestview

CRESTVIEW — Law enforcement officials investigating human remains found behind a low-income housing development say they’re treating the incident as a suspicious death at this time.

MATTHEW BROWN / News Bulletin

CRESTVIEW — Law enforcement officials investigating human remains found behind a low-income housing development say they’re treating the incident as a suspicious death at this time.

Teenagers discovered the remains on Thursday afternoon in a wooded area near the corner of Barr Place and Kennedy Place. The partially decomposed body was identified as human when officers discovered a skull, Police Chief Tony Taylor said.

Crestview police arrived at the scene but did not want to disturb the decomposing skeleton until Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials could arrive and process the scene, Crestview Police Department spokesman Lt. Andrew Schneider said.

Officers secured the crime scene upon its discovery, due to the loss of daylight.

"I'm told that the partial skeletal remains are spread over a 30 square foot area," Taylor said. "Right now, we are letting the medical examiner’s office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement crime scene investigators do their work."

A few local residents gathered near the crime scene on Friday said they often see teenagers go in the wooded area.

"It's unfortunate that something like this would happen, but when you hear something like this happening in your neighborhood, it just snaps you back to reality — like this could happen anywhere,” said Dephaine Baker, who lives in the Neal Cobb Villa neighborhood.